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2014 Damascus Hard Core

It always seems that the volunteers (hikers, club maintainers and friends) exceed expectations during Damascus Hard Core. And the volunteers did so again for this 14th annual event. This year’s hikers enthusiastically signed up. In fact 68 were signed up in the first two hours Friday morning of Trail Days and only 50 was the target. However, fewer returning hikers came to Trail Days and we also target 50 of them. Then surprisingly with good weather many hikers did not show up Sunday morning for departure from Damascus.

But it was all upbeat from there on both Sunday and Monday, May 18 and 19th, in spite of being about 25 hikers less than we planned. The weather cooled off and started in the lower forties at the work sites that Sunday morning. Each day we had part of the crew at Little Rock Knob digging a long relocation and the larger crew just north of Ash Gap digging on the last eight remaining relocations between Cloudland and Ash Gap.

The crew at Little Rock Knob did some beautiful rock work. As Camo said, “We were really fortunate that all the rock was available in the area it was needed.” He also said that at 2 o’clock on the second afternoon, he thought there was no way to open this relocation. But they persisted until they could open it and blaze it. So in the two days they successfully built 1600 feet of trail to replace the 600 feet of the steep rocky climb to the Little Rock Knob vista.

Likewise, the crew at Ash Gap were just as determined. By late Monday afternoon, they had completed and opened seven of the eight relocations. And they jumped in to finish the last relocation. At 4 o’clock they started the last rock switchback by hauling rock 100 feet or more. We essentially finished that switchback but could not complete a substantial crib to open that eighth relocation. (It was opened by the Club ten days later.) In total Hard Core dug about 2000 feet of trail north of Ash Gap.

Thus, 3600 feet of difficult trail was built in two days! And the Appalachian Trail is on a much better grade that is more resistant to erosion.

AT License Plate grants, one from North Carolina and other from Tennessee, funded both dinners. Club volunteers coordinated by Ed Oliver prepared the Sunday dinner and hikers coordinated by “Baltimore Jack” prepared the Monday dinner. If you live in a state with an AT license plate consider purchasing one for your vehicle to support trail work and demonstrate your commitment.

Hard Core patches/rockers were distributed. As usual “One Pint” provided something unique like full snack bags for the hikers so they would not be famished during the day. ALDHA provided funds for additional hiker lunches plus water bottles for both days. Andrew Downs provided Trail Karma high performance tee shirts to all participants. Many were worn on second day of Hard Core and many are being seen on the trail.

In total there were 79 hikers and 37 club and friends or 116 volunteers contributing 2359 hours to make this event a success!